Friday, 29 August 2014

First a quick tale. The other day as I was rushing to get ready I got a microbead from by face wash IN MY EYE. Things that should never be exfoliated: Eyeballs! Did it ever hurt. Luckily I got it out and I'm all good now! It hurt for a bit, but stopped after 24 hours or so.

As for a manicure I have this one for you guys. It's my first floral manicure EVER! Yay! I kept it simple with daisy's. Oh and the base is Sally Hansen Pacific Blue(Old version).

Monday, 25 August 2014

This year I am happy to say I am participating piCture pOlish's 2014 blog/insta fest! One thing they are doing differently this year is in addition to using their polishes, we also have to use Nail Vinyls in our manicure. Things are about to get wacky in here!

First off I have a swatch of my first polish. Freya's Cats that was created in 2013 with Sasha of Nihrida. When I first saw I received this polish I had three thoughts. 1)What a stunner 2)Did they send this to me because of my blog name? 3)If they didn't that is one amazing coincident. For those of you who don't know this polish was inspired by Sasha's love of the colour blue, and the Norse Goddess Freya(Freja), who had a chariot that was pulled around by two cats(Isn't Norse mythology amazing?). What does this have to do with my blog? Well in Norse mythology during battle Valkyries choose who lives and who dies. Then out of all the people who die they take half of them to Valhalla, ruled over by the God Odin. The other half of the dead go with Freya to Fólkvangr, where she rules.MYTHOLOGY!

The polish itself is a beautiful deep yet vibrant blue(Reminded me of the most recent TARDIS). Had it been a bit brighter it could have easily been considered an electric blue. It was packed full of scattered holographic flecks, the kind that piCture pOlishe does so well. To get full coverage I needed 3 coats. Although if you used 2 thick coats, I'm sure you could get away with 2 coats. This polish is probably on of my favourite polishes I own now :D

Outside

Next up I have my nail art using Mad Magenta(A bright Magenta), Sea Jewel(Green glitter in a light teal base) and Chevron Nail Vinyls. On my index and pinky finger I did a single Nail Vinyl strip over either Mad Magenta or Sea Jewel. Then I painted over the whole nail with the colour that was not the base and removed the strip with tweezers. Easy as pie.

Sunlight!

On my middle and ring finger I wanted to try something different. See if I could find a totally new way to use the strips.Which I am glad to say, I think I did! Now let me show you how:1) Paint the nail your base colour. In my example it was Sea Jewel. 2) Cut the Nail Vinyl's into smaller pieces and place them on your nail making sure there are no air bubbles and they are stuck down completely(IMPORTANT)3) (OPTIONAL) With a small brush paint over the Vinyls with white polish. You only need to do this is the original colour of the Nail Vinyl is going to be hard to cover with just polish.4) With that same small brush, paint over the vinyls your second colour. In my example Mad Magenta. You may need 2 coats.5) Seal it all in with a top coat. If you didn't do step 2 correctly they will start to lift and curl.

I loved how these two colours worked together. Especially the contrast between the solid colour and the glitter. I wore this for 2 days and didn't have a single problem with the Nail Vinyls coming off those two fingers.

Now everyone calm down! I know by now you are probably all yelling at your computer screens, demanding more information. Well everyone sit back down. For I come bearing links.

Also just so you know piCture pOlish will be retailing a special exclusive 4 pack 'Nail Vinyls' containing 'Chevrons, Mini Chevrons, Straight & Right Angles. But wait! You want to know what all the other Nail Vinyls look like? I come bearing MORE links! Check out the inlinkz below and see what other bloggers did with all the different Nail Vinyls they were given!

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

Well the other week I probably encountered the most aggressive employee known to man at Sephora. As a whole this is probably the most unpleasant shopping experiences I have EVER had. This is how our conversation went(I'll write it in script form so you can act along of you choose to).

KAS and GEORGE are looking at some Kat Von D Lock-It Tattoo foundation. KAS has tried on this foundation before but had lost the shade name. Out of the two shades that it could possibly be, one of the testers is empty. GEORGE approaches and employee.

GEORGE

Hi I was wondering if you could help us. We were looking for foundation for my friend and wanted to test this out, but the tester was finished.

EMPLOYEE

Let me have a look.

EMPLOYEE tries to press the pump. Nothing comes out. She then goes to the display and finds one new bottle left in that shade.

EMPLOYEE

Now I can open this, but once I do it's now a tester and I can't sell it to you. Are you sure this is the shade for you?

KAS

Well no. It's between that and another one. I've tested them before, but I forgot which one worked for me.

EMPLOYEE

Did someone help you?

KAS

No.

GEORGE

We tried it on her neck and a bit on her face and it matched.

EMPLOYEE

(begins to get aggressive)

Because you know the skin on your neck and face can be different. Especially in the summer when you get darker.(To KAS) Do you wear sunscreen?

KAS

Not often.

EMPLOYEE

You should ALWAYS wear it.

KAS

I'm don't really go outside.

EMPLOYEE

What?!?! You don't go outside EVER?

KAS

I go out. I just don't spend time in the sun.

EMPLOYEE

Well you still should wear it. Do you know how harmful the sun is. Even the lights we have in the store are dangerous. Did you know we have paper that we leave out, and after a year the colour starts fading because of the lights.

KAS and GEORGE look at each other.

EMPLOYEE

Have you been colour ID'd?

KAS

No.

Employee

Well I would do that first.

GEORGE

They once tried it on me and it gave me the wrong colour.

EMPLOYEE

Well the machine is 99.9% correct. The person who did it was probably doing it wrong, because it is never wrong. Here let me get someone to do it for you.

So long story short this employee explained my situation to a make-up artist(She was nice, and she was just doing what her overlord had commanded her to do). She did the colour ID test to find all the foundations that matched my skin tone. She suggested I stay away from the Kat Von D one and she didn't think it was the best for me. When she asked me what I thought after trying out a couple different foundations I said I still wanted to try the Kat Von D one. If it doesn't work for me it doesn't work for me, but I want to know that for sure! We tried on one of the two I had tried earlier(and that didn't come up on the colour ID), and the make-up artist said "This is actually perfect on you".

RANT TIME!

1) Had the first lady who "helped" me just listened and let me try what I wanted I wouldn't have been stuck there for ALMOST AN HOUR.

2) When I said I don't go outside I mean I don't hike, I don't work in construction. Do you think I tunnelled my way here?

3) I get that you have a quota to fill, but being overly aggressive to the point where it is clear you are trying to make the shopper feel dumb. This is NEVER ok.

4) Why are we all here if your lights are so DANGEROUS? Are they UV? If so why? Should you not be telling people to leave?

5) Your paper is turning colours because YOU LEFT IT OUT FOR A YEAR, AND IT IS BEGINNING TO OXIDISE. The lights can be a CATALYST(Unless they were UV, but they weren't), but your paper would have faded no matter what.

6) If you are going to go the aggressive as hell/scare tactic route to try and make
someone feel stupid here's a tip. Whatever falls out of your mouth
shouldn't make you sound dumber than a pile of dirt. Before opening your gob to bark out inaccurate facts to people, I suggest you do some proper research. That way you won't sound like a badly written Wikipedia article.

7) The colour that ended up being perfect on me NEVER showed up when I did the colour ID test. Your magic device was 0% helpful.

8) I went to MAC after to get some blush right after. I could not stop saying THANK YOU to the lady that helped me. She was nice, super informative and I was in and out in a few minutes. TAKE NOTES! THAT IS HOW YOU DO IT!

Monday, 18 August 2014

So the other week I was wearing this manicure, minding my own business in a store, when a lady grabs my hand* and says "I love your nails! Did you do this?" I told her I did, and she said she had a home salon and was looking for some extra help when it came to nail art. So we swapped info and all that jazz. Now you guys should know that 1)I am not licensed and 2)Where I am you don't need to be licensed. Now this is a blessing and a curse. On one hand I can say do birthday parties and get paid for it. On the other hand it also means ANYONE who has the means to start up a salon can just open one up. Even if they don't know the first thing about nail care or haw to properly sanitize equipment. I probably wont do it just because I don't think she is licensed(and I'm not saying just because she does not have one she must be gross, but I don't know her, so I can't be sure of that). I would feel differently if someone who was licensed asked me because then I would have someone watching me, but I'm not sure how I feel about someone who has no licence calling the shots. What do you guys think?

Well here's the manicure in question. I used what is turning into my favourite purple cream Orly Charged Up, along with China Glaze's Gold, Mingle With Kringle and Orly Liquid Vinyl for the black animal print nail. I should also add how I love how the gradient turned out. I rarely use polish for gradients because I think acrylic paint is easier. But this time around it was pretty simple. I think it had something to do with that fact that I had better sponges this time, and then didn't disintegrate as soon as the polish touched them.

*Like my polish. Tell me you like it. Please do not grab my hand. Depending on the time and the place you may end up making a different sort of contact with my other hand.

Friday, 15 August 2014

At the end of last month is was a friends birthday. For her birthday we all went on a ghost walk, which logically meant I had an excuse to put ghosts on my nails in July.

The walk itself was ok. It wasn't really scary, and I didn't see a single ghost. Now I have gone on ghost walks in the past that have scared me to death(but not really because I would be a ghost!) But I did like this because I did learn quite a bit. Yes you heard me I had fun learning about stuff. I can't say I believe in ghosts at this point, but I can't say I don't believe in them.

To get this simple look I painted 3 of my nails either purple(Orly Charged Up) or orange (Nicka K Vibrant Orange) and topped it with a nail polish classic Ninja Polish Sticks n' Stones. My accent nails I pained them with black polish and then added the ghosts using white acrylic paint. The only thing I was sort of sad about was the fact the the Seche shrunk my tips *shakes fist*.

What do you think of these? And more importantly, do you believe in ghosts?

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

I'm going to be honest with you guys, because we're all friends here. When it comes to glitter swatches I sometimes don't care for macro shots. It's not that they aren't pretty, but let's be real when are you ever going to see your nails like that? I just feel like sometimes when looking at polish from different distances can make it look different kind of like with different lighting. I'm making sense right?

Well this manicure is the opposite of that. I know this isn't macro, but it is a close up. While it looks kind of cool I don't think it looks it's best. This manicure in my opinion is a perfect "To be seen from a distance-acure". It's one of those manicures that catches peoples eye, but not in an obnoxious way.

To get this look I first got some inspiration from on of my favourite mediums to get inspiration from, Fashion. The piece I based this on was from Felder Felder's Autumn Winter 2014 collection. To get the effect of the dress I used the dry brush technique using a fan brush. A technique where you wipe most of the paint off your brush before using it on you nails, giving it a distressed look. I used a combo of polish and acrylic paints over a white polish.

Monday, 11 August 2014

This is a polish that Robyn Gave me a few months ago because she just didn't like it as mch as she thought she would. I can safely say I'm glad she didn't like it :P

This is Maybelline Blue Marks The Spot(But had you been reading since the title I'm sure you could have made that connection) from their Polka Dots collection, layered over one coat of Maybelline Denim Dash. On its on this polish is kind of this weird sheer, milky blue. It really does not look all that great on it's own. Espicially when you have nails like mine aka Yellow as a lemon. My sketch nails kind of give the polish a green tint. I thought a perfect match would be Denim Dash a matte, denim colour shimmer. I had to use two coats of BMTS over DD for good coverage and I did have to do blotting on some nails where it was uneven.

I really like this polish. I honestly don't know if I would buy it at full price, but if it was on sale or like in this case given to me for free it would not go to waste! I can honestly say I have no idea if this is part of their permanent collection, but know you can find it online on places like Amazon.

Saturday, 9 August 2014

First off let me start by saying, that despite my lack of commenting I still do read your blogs. Second I would like to say that despite my lack of posting I haven't lost interest. At this point I have so many photos backlogged on my laptop that the task almost seems daunting. But I am determined to do it(also I need to clear up any space I can :P)

So today I'm doing something that I haven't done in a while. Because I have so much stuff backlogged, I usually post a manicure that I did eons ago. Today I'm posting a manicure that I'M CURRENTLY WEARING! Out of nowhere I had this sudden urge to paint my nails like turquoise stones. It's funny because I didn't even know that they were just called turquoise stones. I actually looked up "What are those turquoise stones?" You learn something new everyday eh?

So I used the water spotted technique, and originally wasn't going to use any sort of tutorial as I had used the technique before. Then I remembered how I had problems with it last time so I decided to look for help. I ended up finding this AMAZING tutorial over at Lacquerstyle.com. Out of all the turquoise stone nails her were by far the most realistic. For this manicure I used Essence's You Belong To Me(Ugh, that name!), Sally Hansen's Gilty Pleasure and my bottle of remnant black polish(when a bottle of black polish is almost done I mix it into a single bottle and use it for things like this).

Overall these aren't perfect, but I am really please with them. They look especially pretty in real life.